1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pillow suitable for women's body, i.e. of a type provided with a specific shaping, allowing to rest with the body lying face downwards, i.e. in the ‘belly-down’ position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The option of assuming a correct lying position when at rest is of fundamental importance for the psychophysical wellbeing. In particular, the prone position is healthy as it allows the spine to arrange itself according to an adequate posture, forcing vertebrae alignment on a near-horizontal plane.
Moreover, many, who on their own accord adopt it as the more natural and restful, habitually assume this position. Others, for the above reasons, adopt it in search of a posture apt to prevent or cure spine dislocation defects, or since it alleviates cervical, spinal or lumbar pains and pathologies.
Contrarily to its positive indications, a prone position might prove inconvenient to women, entailing a breast flattening under the chest weight. This problem assumes greater relevance with the increase in breast size, without however being necessarily related thereto, as it possesses a subjective character.
In fact, the inconvenience may be related to other factors, like e.g. mastopathies, irritations due to breast-feeding or to the menstrual cycle, after-effects of plastic surgery on breast, of mastectomy or of any other occurrence in the chest area.
In some cases the prone position is absolutely prevented; in other cases a woman tending to fall asleep in such a position senses a discomfort, forcing her to assume a different position, with an entailed marked disturbance of the half asleep and sleeping states that may even partly thwart the effects of rest.
Another drawback is related to breast flattening, leading to the premature formation of wrinkles at the breast side, mainly at the sternum, a blemish that may be evident even with a standard neckline.
In order to at least partially overcome these drawbacks, in some cases there has been adopted a positioning of a normal pillow or of two pillows so as to keep raised the central portion of the torso. This contrivance, while failing to prevent discomfort, leads to a postural deformation of the spine thwarting the benefits related to the prone position. The same drawback occurred with the use of roll-shaped reduced-section pillows to be placed below the breast.
The state of the art also foresees the use of small-size pillows to be placed between the two breasts in a sternal position, kept thereat by a strap system. Apart from the inherent discomfort, said pillow, designed to prevent flattening blemishes, is ineffective when the body at rest tilts on one side, entailing the flattening of one breast and the raising of the other breast and determining an inconvenient pressure onto the sternum that hinders breathing.
Another known pillow shape provides a butterfly-or X-shaped configuration, attainable inflating a suitably shaped flexible container. The center of the X is placed between the breasts, and the arms of the X support the chest.
As in the previous example, there is a drawback related to the shape allowing the body at rest to tilt sideways, anyhow leading to the flattening of one breast. Moreover, the sensation of complete support provided by a traditional pillow is missing.
Other solutions to the problem outlined above envisage specific resting plane or mattress shapes. These examples, mainly adopted for hospital care on surgical patients, are obviously not employable in everyday life.